


Rest

by RainyChromium



Category: Kirby (Video Games)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, If you're iffy with that you might wanna click off, It's not graphic but just in case y'know, Just a warning but there's a scene where someone is stabbed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 08:14:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30086103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainyChromium/pseuds/RainyChromium
Summary: Sometimes sleep can lead to dreams. Sometimes those dreams are not very pleasant.
Relationships: King Dedede/Ripple Star Queen | Fairy Queen
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	Rest

“You look tired.”

Fairy Queen was snapped back to reality at the penguin’s voice. She looked over and up at Dedede, who was walking beside her down one the halls of Ripple Star’s castle. The  _ pat-pat _ of their feet made a rhythm in the otherwise empty corridor, leaving an echo ringing behind them.

“I  _ have _ been working all day,” she told him, lifting her head just a bit higher. “I can handle myself.”

“You sure you don’t wanna rest for a while?” the King prompted. “You’ve been workin’ hard, you deserve it.” He patted his chest, looking smug. “Royalty’s gotta be well-rested to keep ruling.”

She sent him a small smile, then turned her face back to the floor as the two continued to walk down the hall. “I suppose. It is not nearly as close to my bedtime as it should be, however. If I sleep now, the others may worry.”

“Who, the other fairies? Nah, I’ll tell ’em you’re just taking a nap. They’re probably not even thinking about you right now.”

“As long as they are safe.”

“Psh, yeah.” Dedede rolled his eyes. “As if something’s gonna come try and kidnap them while you take a nap.” 

He playfully rested a hand on her shoulder, forcing her to come to a halt. As she looked back up at him, she lifted a hand to touch the one that he’d laid upon her, sighing. “Promise me you will wake me up in a few hours at the latest. I do not want to miss out on my duties.”

“Yeah, sure.” He sent her a soft grin. “Now go to your room. You can’t be working while you’ve got bags under your eyes.”

The King turned and started walking back down the hall. She watched him go for a few moments before turning back around and heading towards her own room. Although Dedede meant well, she knew he couldn’t take care of all of her duties. There were almost too many for her to handle, let alone the penguin King who was only visiting the planet for a little while. 

Coming upon her room, she walked inside and stole a glance around. The curtain-draped bed sat against the wall in the middle of the room, two dressers flanking it. A small light sat upon one of the bedside tables, glowing softly in the evening darkness. As soon as she laid eyes on her bed, the Queen suddenly felt the weariness of the day fall upon her back.  _ He was right about me being tired after all. _

Lifting up her hands, she drew the all-too-familiar crown from her head and placed it near the lamp on the dresser. She decided to leave on her dress, knowing that Dedede would  _ hopefully _ be waking her up in a little while anyways. As she crawled onto the bed and slipped underneath the pink-tinted covers, she glanced over at the dim light that pooled from the lamp on her bedside table.

_ It will be fine to leave it on.  _ It was something she told herself nearly every time she slept; who would care if she left a light on in her own room? It wasn’t as if others were going to enter and see that the Queen couldn’t sleep without a night light. As she lifted her glasses from her face and placed them on the table right next to her crown, she couldn’t stifle a sigh of disdain towards her own fear of the dark.  _ You should be over it already. You are not a child anymore. _

She shuffled and turned onto her side, facing away from the dull light that shone from the dresser. Exhaustion overwhelmed her, but she still felt as though she couldn’t sleep. Minutes continued to pass as her mind raced with different thoughts.  _ Do they need my help? Did I do that thing? Are they going to come back? _ She knew that each of her worried thoughts could easily be brushed off by Dedede. He always knew what to say in response to her worries.  _ They are fine. You can do it later. They are long gone, there is no need to worry . . . _

\---

She found herself jerking awake moments later - or at least it _felt_ like only moments had passed. Instead of on her bed, she was on the floor, much to her surprise. As she got up and fluttered her wings to rid them of dust, she realized that her glasses were already on her face. She could have sworn she’d taken them off . . .

A knock on her door sounded throughout the room, and she quickly stepped over to it and opened it up. A familiar pink-haired fairy came bolting through the door and into Fairy Queen’s arms, sobbing.

“Ribbon!” Startled, the Queen wrapped her arms around the smaller fairy, securing her in a soft hug. “What is wong? Did something happen?”

“T-they’re here!” Ribbon wasn’t just sobbing anymore; she was yelling. “They’re coming! You have to  _ go!” _

Alarm flashed in her mind as Fairy Queen stepped forward and peered out through the door to her room. A figure’s shadow was cast upon the wall, but the figure itself was concealed by a turn in the hall. Large as it may be, she was determined not to let it get near Ribbon, or any other fairy for that matter. She turned and rushed to her bed, leaned down, and slipped a hand underneath it -

_ Where is my rapier? _

Panic filled her senses as she frantically swiped her hand beneath the bed, searching for the place she kept it when she needed it. The sword, however, was nowhere to be found. Turning to look at the door again, she nearly fell backwards in surprise as she spotted the figure blocking the doorway. 

The figure wasn’t a monster at all. It was only Dedede.

“Go away!” shouted Ribbon suddenly, flying down to hide behind her Queen. 

As Fairy Queen glanced from Ribbon to the penguin King, she rose to her feet and stepped towards Dedede. “What is this all about?” she asked. As she neared him, she could see his eyes filled with an emotion, although it wasn’t one she could name. Anger, but at the same time . . . emptiness? “Are you alright?”

He glared down at her, unresponsive and unmoving. Strangely, as she observed his face, she noticed that his feathers were dull, almost black. Very much unlike his usual blue. As she reached up to touch his face, his red eyes flashed and darted to her hand. He quickly stepped back and lowered his stance, teeth gritted in a scowl.

_ Wait - since when did he have  _ red _ eyes? _

The slight differences in the colors of his figure were what alerted her to dodge his first attack. Dedede came in swinging with a punch, but she quickly darted backwards and avoided the strike. As she turned to warn Ribbon to leave, she realized that the other fairy was nowhere to be seen. The distraction proved to be a mistake, because just as soon as she turned her head back to face her attacker, she found herself being smacked directly into a wall. Pain erupted in her left wing as she slid to the ground, but she tried to ignore it as she squinted up at the King who stood dangerously in front of her.

_ “You let them destroy the only plans I had left,” _ Dedede growled. It was not the warm voice she recognized from him. If anything, it reminded her of . . .  _ oh, no. _

_ “Leave  _ him!” she snapped, jumping from the floor and lunging at Dedede. Her attempt at retribution proved to be futile as the penguin grabbed her arms. He yanked them forward, bringing her close enough so that he was almost whispering in her ear. 

_ “Your people would have been better off with me,” _ the Dark Matter hissed. _ “You make for a terrible leader.” _ With a jerk, the possessed King threw her to the floor. 

Pain shot through her chest, and when she looked down, she noticed a thin strip of metal sticking straight out of her torso.  _ My rapier. _ She sat in stunned silence as blood began to pool around her feet. The sound of the King rushing out of the room could be faintly heard, but the Queen hardly paid any heed to it.  _ I  _ am  _ a failure, aren’t I? _

\---

“Hey. Hey. Are you alright? Fairy?”

She opened her eyes to the familiar voice of Dedede. It was no longer harsh, no longer possessive. The  _ real  _ Dedede.

“Why’re you crying?”

Sitting up in her bed, Fairy Queen looked over at the blurred shape of her partner. She brought a hand up to her cheek and found that it was wet. _That was all a dream._ She felt a nudge from Dedede as he held out her glasses to her. As she slipped them on her face, she closed her eyes and shuddered.

“Are you okay?” The side of the bed that he was leaning over began to shift as he clambered onto it to sit beside her. His weight caused her to lean on him a bit, but she let herself fall. He wrapped an arm around her side, looking worried.

“It was nothing,” she murmured. “Only a dream.” She turned her face and pressed it into his neck feathers. The touch on her face was soft . . . a comforting feeling.

Although Dedede didn’t ask any more questions, she knew he wanted to. He always had more questions for her when she was avoiding answering them. But within the moment he seemed to understand that she didn’t want to speak, and she appreciated that. The lingering memories of her dream made her mind wander to questions of her own: Would he lash out? Could a Dark Matter be lurking in the castle at this very moment? Is Ribbon safe?

_ It was only another dream, _ she reassured herself.  _ You should be used to them by now.  _ With a shaky sigh, she lifted her face away from Dedede’s feathers and looked up at him. His eyes turned to look at her, too, a questioning expression in his eyes. Blue eyes.

“Your eyes are pretty,” she said softly.

The way his expression changed made her think he wasn’t expecting her to say something like that. “Uh, thanks. Yours are  _ really _ pretty.” A grin appeared on his face, but he looked away, refusing to look at her directly. She lifted an arm, pulled away her sleeve, then rested her hand on his chest, right where some feathers poked out from above his kimono. They were soft, just like the rest of the ones that covered his body, and they were blue. A very lovely color compared to the fleeting memory of gray-blue that had filled her dreams.

“D’you wanna talk about anything?” he suddenly asked.

She blinked, keeping her eyes trained to her own hand as she fluffed up his feathers more. “I had a nightmare again.”

“Again?”

“It was about you,” she continued. Her eyes felt watery, as if they were about to overflow with tears. “I-I dislike sleeping sometimes, because of them. The nightmares are too common. There was . . .” The thought of Dark Matter made her flinch, shutting her eyes tight as she grimaced.  _ It is not here, it is not here, it is not here. You are fine. _ “There was Dark Matter. But you were . . . You were possessed, and y-you were after Ribbon.” She tried to control the stuttering of her voice, but thinking about it only began making it worse. “You came into my room, and y-you attacked . . . me.”

The King’s eyes widened as his expression turned to a frown. “Possessed, huh? Which means it wasn’t the real me doin’ it.”

She laughed bitterly. “Oh, no, of course it was not you. Dark Matter invades both my waking hours and my sleeping ones, it seems.” At the same time she was speaking, her mind was ablaze with different thoughts.  _ I thought it was the real you at first. I thought you were going to hurt Ribbon. You would never hurt her. _

As if he could read her mind, Dedede shook his head. “The  _ real _ me would never attack you. Or Ribbon. It was just a dream.” He brought a hand up to swipe some hair out of her face, then he rested the hand on her cheek. “I have dreams like that sometimes, too, though.”

The information came as a surprise to her. “Do you?”

“Yeah. Used to, anyway. All that possession shit. It didn’t let me sleep for a while, the first few times it happened. I got used to it, though.” With a glance towards the bed, Dedede tugged at his robe awkwardly. “It’s happened so much now that it’s kinda . . . numb, I guess? Yeah.” His voice trailed off into silence, leaving the room with empty air waiting to be filled.

Fairy Queen stared at him, holding her breath.  _ You must know exactly what it feels like. And I was here expecting you not to understand at all.  _ “I’m sorry.”

“Huh?” Dedede looked up, as if he’d been lost in thought. “Oh. It ain’t your fault, you don’t-”

“I should not be complaining,” she blurted. “You have been through so much, and yet you still listen to me complain? Why?”

Dedede stared at her for a moment, a baffled expression upon his face. “What d’you mean ‘why?’ I’m not gonna stop listening to your problems just because I’ve been through more than you. It’s not gonna stop me from  _ caring _ about you just because I’ve worked through my own memories and shit.”

Fairy Queen stared back, her breathing uneven. She felt like she was about to cry, but tried to blink the emotion away. “You do not have to do that.”

“Yeah, I know. But I’m gonna. I know what it’s like to not have anybody to talk to it about.” He reached his arms outward, tentatively offering. “You don’t gotta go through it alone.”

As she leaned forward into his embrace and felt Dedede’s arms wrap around her, Fairy Queen tried to suppress a sob that she felt building up in her throat. “I f-feel like a bother.”

“You’re not,” he murmured. She could feel his hand begin stroking her hair; a soft gesture that made her feel all the more loved, and all the more guilty. He was so gentle, so understanding; it was nothing like the upbeat, aloof demeanor he put on when under the eyes of others. And he was like this when with  _ her. . . _

With Dedede’s arms around her and his presence being ever-so-comforting, the Queen pressed her face into his chest and let herself cry.


End file.
